Lifetime Achievement Award

In 2017, Doug Lipman was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for “sustained and exemplary contributions to storytelling in North America.”

Well-loved as a coach, writer, teacher and performer, Doug has long been a thought-leader in the storytelling movement.

Previous winners of this award from the National Storytelling Network include:

Theatre artist Spalding Gray

Folklorist Barre Toelken

Beloved storyteller Donald Davis

Musician and storyteller Gamble Rogers

Library legends and authors Augusta Baker and Anna Pellowski

Doug’s friends and mentors Jay O’Callahan, Ray Hicks.

In the video above, Jane Marshall introduces Doug to the conference crowd, reminding them of Doug’s coaching tool, the “MIT - Most Important Thing” about a story. Jane concludes her introduction by describing Doug as “the man whose life-MIT is hope.”

Doug Sums Up the powers of storytelling

In this second video, Doug accepts the award. He tells a spiritual story about authenticity, quotes cellist Pablo Casals about our unique abilities, and challenges his listeners to wield the “slingshot” of storytelling against the giant forces that work to keep us from being our big,authentic selves. Storytelling, he says, can “can remind us of our true nature and help restore us to our true selves.”